DEAR Editor;
With regards to Umdoni council and administration, after a number of inquorate meetings in January and February, council and committees have started to sit again.
In terms of the standing rules, the speaker is tasked to deal with the non-attendance of councillors, but to date has dismally failed to properly address this critical issue with the urgency it deserves, resulting in lack of oversight and further service delivery failures.
Financial reporting continues to be of a poor standard lacking the necessary details to perform oversight and many reports tabled at meetings are outdated and inadequate.
Questions by councillors are still not being answered in terms of the standing rules.
My written request to the mayor to provide an update to council on the fraud complaint has fallen on deaf ears as there is no such item on the March council agenda.
It would appear that whilst the faces have changed, nothing else has as can be seen from the extravagant and exorbitant costs incurred at a 5-star luxury hotel in Umhlanga for the municipality’s strategic planning session.
This arrogance will antagonise ratepayers even further and could likely lead to more ratepayers withholding payments to the municipality.
There is still no permanent appointment of a chief financial officer (CFO) despite the contract of the previous incumbent having ended months ago.
There is currently an acting CFO and an acting municipal manager (MM) and the resignation of the previous MM has paved the way for the process to begin for a new permanent appointment.
However, this also means that the disciplinary process against the former MM cannot proceed as she is no longer an employee.
It is therefore critical that the municipality pursues criminal and civil claims against the former municipal manager to try and recover monies.
The Mayoral Imbizo in November 2020 was well attended and the mayor committed to providing some relief at the adjustment budget in January/February 2021, and to work closely with ward councillors in an effort to address the neglect.
Unfortunately, my subsequent written offer to meet with the mayor and discuss the priorities for the ward as well as my written submissions for the adjustment budget has been ignored as is borne out by the budget that was adopted at the February council meeting.
It was for this reason as well as concerns relating to the accuracy and procedures that led me to vote against the adjustments budget.
COUNCILLOR SHARA SINGH
Ward 15 – Umdoni
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